Book Review: The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He
The Ones We’re Meant to Find is a novel set in a futuristic Earth. On the shore of an abandoned island, Cee wakes up. She is left with but one clear memory: she has a sister called Kay . . . In a floating city in the sky Kasey mourns her sister, Celia.
Two lonely teenagers with a common memory of sisterhood, one searching for the other, the other facing a dilemma that could change the fate of everyone on Earth. Living vastly different lives - one is isolated on a damaged Earth, the other surrounded by people in a privileged eco-city floating above. Nothing is clear to either and truth is elusive and complex.
Kasey’s life seems meaningless and grey without her sister, full of holographs, numbered castes, a boy named Actinium, nosy reporters, distressed boyfriends, and no access to the only thing that she feels she understands and connects with - science. Coming to terms with her sister's death is only one of the many problems she faces, and her path is full of hidden enemies and difficult decisions. Should she save humans...or do they deserve to die for what they did to her sister and the planet?
Marooned on a small island in the middle of nowhere, Cee’s one goal is to find her sister. She lives a quiet life consisting of a robot called U-me, a boat called Hubert, M, M’s house, the ocean, and taro plants. Until she meets someone who changes her life forever and reveals a truth that causes her to rethink her entire existence.
The Ones We’re Meant to Find changes perspective and contrasts two personalities, one a determined and loving extrovert struggling to survive, and the other a genius, socially awkward and sometimes a cold introvert torn between saving humankind with her extraordinary mind or leaving the ones who caused the destruction of both her planet and sister to meet the same fate in turn.
Shocking twists, changes of character and reveals that leave you speechless. This book will leave you unable to process everything at once. A young adult, dystopian, science fiction novel set in a world ravaged by climate change and pollution, split between two completely different young women...or not? Complex and confusing with a futuristic setting, haunting backstory, and incredibly detailed plot.
I was surprised, shocked, confused, sad, excited, and intrigued all at once. My mind went into a state of shock during one of the most flabbergasting revelations that I had ever read and had to re-read the page three times. Despite the slight information overload, I enjoyed this strange rollercoaster ride and spent most of the book wanting to know more. The ending was abrupt which caused me (again) to re-read it several times, and while that annoyed me at the time, it was a good ending as it left a gap to be filled with my imagination.
After I finished reading this book it took me a long time to figure out whether I liked it or not. Joan He’s very original novel challenged me more than any book I had ever read and was hard to wrap my head around. If you like being challenged, are interested in futuristic sci-fi that gives you another point of view on Earth’s future, can endure grief and abrupt changes of reality – then this book is for you.
- Errinundra Farran, 2022 SCWC Young Book Reviewer
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joan He is a Chinese-American writer. Descendant of the Crane was her debut young-adult fantasy novel. She is donating some of the proceeds of her second novel, The Ones We’re Meant to Find, to Ocean Conservancy. Joan lives in Philadelphia and writes from a desk overlooking the Delaware River.
SCWC 2022 BOOK REVIEWER IN RESIDENCE
Errinundra (Errin) Farran is a year eight student at Bega High School. Her favourite subject is English, and in 2021 she achieved an Academic Excellence Award, primarily for being the only student to be given maximum marks for her illustrated story book The Land of the Norm. Errin lives in Quaama with her father and four siblings who are all avid readers. She enjoys swapping between being active and curling up and reading a book. Her greatest influence is her mother who loved to draw, write and sing, and whose book of poems, Annus Poeticus, was published shortly after her death in 2019.